Closing the gender pay gap
“Regular, scrutinised and actioned” reporting is a “game changer” that will ensure equal pay for equal work, says Lendlease’s chief Steve McCann, as 122 business leaders commit to closing the gender pay gap.
A new and comprehensive resource, Closing the Gender Pay Gap, released by the Male Champions of Change coalition today, is designed to help organisations, large and small, accelerate their efforts to achieve pay equity.
The step-by-step guide to closing the gap is drawn from strategies and tips developed by some of Australia’s top businesses over recent years.
According to the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA), Australia’s average gender pay gap currently sits at 15.3 per cent, reflecting the overall position of women in the workforce.
This difference is driven by a range of factors, including the under-representation of women in leadership positions and significant disparities in earnings between male and female dominated industries and occupations.
Libby Lyons, WGEA’s director, says addressing the national gender pay gap requires a collective effort.
“Employers must step up and play their part. All leaders have the power to analyse their data and take action on pay gaps within their organisations,” Lyons says.
Steve McCann (pictured, far right), group chief executive officer and managing director of Lendlease, whose organisation’s experiences features among four case studies in the report, is a signatory.
“There is no excuse for men to be paid more than women for work that has the same accountability, breadth and difficulty, and for which they have comparable performance, competence and experience,” McCann says.
“We’ve learned that gender-based pay gaps can be both common and insidious – particularly in historically male-dominated sectors.
“Having regular, scrutinised and actioned reporting is a game changer – real-time access to relevant data becomes hard to ignore and demands action.”
Closing the Gender Pay Gap explains the various ways in which gender pay gaps can emerge and identifies the workplace conventions and fallacies that fuel them. It provides methodologies for assessing and ensuring equity through different remuneration types and other pay-related mechanisms, as well as best practice approaches to prevent and respond to like-for-like pay gaps.
Elizabeth Broderick, founder and chair of the Male Champions of Change, says leadership will accelerate the advancement of gender equality in our society.
“This is a joint and concerted effort to help make unjustifiable pay differences in like-for-like roles for men and women a matter of history in Australia,” Broderick says.
The Closing the Gender Pay Gap report and resources within was developed from, and builds upon, work and leadership undertaken by the Property Male Champions of Change with support from EY.
Image 1 – NSW Diversity Lunch 2017: David Harrison, Charter Hall Limited; Carmel Hourigan, AMP Capital; Carol Schwartz AM, Convenor of the Property Male Champions of Change; Natalie Wray, The GPT Group; Steve McCann, Lendlease
Image 2 – NSW Diversity Lunch 2017: Steve McCann, Lendlease